Newspapers Outperforming TV in Video Ads

Itâ€™s true: newspapers are outperforming TV in video ads. In 2006, newspapers’ websites sold $81 million in local online streaming video advertisements. Local TV broadcasters’ websites sold only $32 million. Even taken with the other $48 million spent on online video advertising, itâ€™s not much compared to the advertising industry total of $280 billion. But look out: online video is poised to become a more and more significant portion of online ad spending.

Borrell predicts that by 2012, local online video will capture 35% of the online ad spend, or about $5 billion. Only paid search is predicted to fare better at $5.9 billion. (Their other two categories, e-mail ads and banners/listings, will comprise $3.4 billion together.)

The Executive Summary of their report says of those millions and billions of dollars:

Where will most of that money go? Not to the purveyors of traditional â€œword from our sponsorâ€ commercials, but to those who can offer long-form video information that their Web site visitors actually choose to see.

So, whoâ€™s going to give us the commercials that we actually want to see? Borrell adds more predictions for the future of the newspaper/TV station rivalry and the online video industry in general:

Online competition between newspapers and broadcast TV stations â€“ the leaders in local advertising â€“ will intensify this year as both sides develop Web-based video products. The clash will focus on automotive advertisers initially, though real estate, health and employment are prime targets as well. The opportunity to deliver 15-second pre-roll ads along with a tantalizing new opportunity for local advertisers – long-form â€œinfomercialsâ€ on demand â€“ are becoming antidotes for media companies suffering declines in their core products.

As if the advertising industry needed more internal competition. Luckily, we, the viewers, will reap the benefits: (I hope) creative and intriguing video ads.

With television getting more and more diluted, I guess I’m not surprised. Though there are many less readers of the local newspaper, television channels are having to share bandwidth with hundreds of other channels (and growing).